The Nifty Foodie

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Beef Daube Provencal

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I was searching for the perfect beef stew recipe, and was pointed out to this recipe by someone on the What’s Cooking board that I frequent. I have to thank her so much for pointing me to this recipe because I would have never made it or known to search for it. 🙂 This was a wonderful recipe! FI went for seconds and he RARELY does that for anything I cook! I guess my skills are growing!

Beef Daube Provencal
Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients:

  • 2  teaspoons  olive oil
  • 12  garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1  (2-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes (I used extra lean stew meat)
  • 1 1/2  teaspoons  salt, divided
  • 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper, divided
  • 1  cup  red wine (I used 12 oz.)
  • 2  cups  chopped carrot
  • 1 1/2  cups  chopped onion
  • 1/2  cup  less-sodium beef broth
  • 1  tablespoon  tomato paste
  • 1  teaspoon  chopped fresh rosemary
  • 1  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
  • Dash of ground cloves
  • 1  (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
  • 1  bay leaf
  • 3  cups  hot cooked medium egg noodles (about 4 cups uncooked noodles)
  • Chopped fresh thyme (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 300°.
  2. Heat olive oil in a small Dutch oven over low heat. Add garlic to pan; cook for 5 minutes or until garlic is fragrant, stirring occasionally. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon; set aside. Increase heat to medium-high. Add beef to pan. Sprinkle beef with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove beef from pan. Add wine to pan, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add garlic, beef, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, carrot, and next 8 ingredients (through bay leaf) to pan; bring to a boil.
  3. Cover and bake at 300° for 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Discard bay leaf. Serve over noodles. Garnish with chopped fresh thyme, if desired.

Note: To make in a slow cooker, prepare through Step 2. Place beef mixture in an electric slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH for 5 hours.

Serves: 6

POINTS*: 8 (with noodles)

Foil Pack Chicken Fajitas!

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I receive the Kraft Food & Family magazine, which by the way is FREE! If you don’t have a subscription, get one. It’s a great source for easy recipes and ideas!

I found this recipe for chicken fajitas and decided that I should try to make this happen for my fiance and I. This recipe was great, though I think next time, I’ll sear the chicken before putting it in the foil pack. It’s a definite try and super easy clean-up wise, since the chicken is in the foil!

 

It’s not the most photographic dish, but it’s still pretty good!

Foil Pack Chicken Fajitas
Source: Kraft

Ingredients:

  • 1-1/2 cups instant white rice, uncooked
  • 1-1/2 cups  hot water
  • 1 Tbsp. TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Taco Seasoning Mix
  • 4 small  boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
  • 1 each: green and red pepper, cut into strips
  • 1/2 cup  TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick ‘N Chunky Salsa
  • 1/2 cup KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Taco Cheese

Directions:

  • Heat oven to 400ÂşF. Fold up all sides of each of four 18×12-inch sheets of heavy-duty foil to form 1-inch rim; spray foil with cooking spray. Combine rice, water and taco seasoning; spoon evenly onto centers of foil. Top evenly with remaining ingredients.
  • Bring up foil sides. Double fold top and ends to seal each packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place in 15x10x1-inch baking pan.
  • Bake 30 to 35 min. or until chicken is cooked through (165ÂşF). Let stand 5 min. Cut slits in foil to release steam before opening packets.

I’m entering this for Joelen’s Tasty Tools event for this month. The tool of the month is Baking sheets, and of course, I used a baking sheet to hold the foil chicken up and to catch anything that leaked out!

Oven “fried” Chimichangas

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My fiance and I had some leftover rotisserie chicken from Target to use up. So, I searched online for ideas and found this great recipe for chimichangas on Recipezaar. Even better, it’s healthy!

Oven Fried Chimichangas
Source: Recipezaar

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup picante sauce or your favorite salsa
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
  • 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2 green onions, chopped with some tops (about 1/4 cup)
  • 6 (8 inch)  flour tortillas
  • 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
  • shredded cheddar cheese, for serving
  • chopped green onion, for serving
  • picante sauce, for serving

Directions:

  1. Mix the chicken, picante sauce/salsa, cumin, oregano, cheese and onions together in a bowl.
  2. Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla.
  3. Fold the opposite sides over filling.
  4. Roll up from bottom and place seam-side down on a baking sheet.
  5. Brush with melted margarine.
  6. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until golden.
  7. Garnish with additional cheese and green onion and serve salsa on the side.

These came out pretty good. I would add more cheese for next time, but I think this is a definite keeper in the recipe file for us!

Pumpkin (White) Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I made these pumpkin cookies last week, since I was on a serious pumpkin kick, as you can tell from previous entries. These were a little too sweet with the white chocolate chips, in my opinion. So, next time, I’ll omit them and let the pumpkin shine!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Allrecipes

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I did 1/2 cup applesauce, of course!)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I used white chocolate chips)
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional and omitted)

Directions:

  1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
  2. Add in the vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
  3. Drop by the spoonful on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

 

Pumpkin Bread

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After yesterday’s pumpkin cheesecake brownies, I had to use up a good bit of the leftover pumpkin. So, I searched blogs until I found Katie’s adaptation for a classic pumpkin bread that would use up all the rest of that yummy pumpkin before it went bad in the fridge!

Of course, I subbed applesauce for butter here. It was still very good though! 🙂 Thanks Katie!

Classic Pumpkin Bread
Source: Good Things Catered adapted from Joy of Cooking

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ÂĽ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/3 c. milk
  • ½ tsp vanilla
  • 6 Tbsp butter, at room temp (I used applesauce instead)
  • 1 c. granulated sugar
  • 1/3 c. packed brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 c. pumpkin puree

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Have all ingredients at room temp and prepare 9×5 loaf pan.
  3. Whisk together flour, soda, powder, salt and spices thoroughly.
  4. In another bowl combine milk and vanilla.
  5. In large bowl of mixer beat butter until creamy (about 30 sec).
  6. Gradually add sugars and beat on high speed until lightened in texture (3-4 min).
  7. Beat in eggs one at a time.
  8. Add pumpkin puree on low speed until just blended.
  9. Add flour mixture in 3 parts alternating with the milk mixture in 2 parts beating on low or stirring with spatula until just combined. (Don’t overmix here! Really just stir until just combined. Sorry, I watch too much Alton Brown….)
  10. Scrape batter into pan and spread evenly.
  11. Bake about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (It took me about 75 minutes)

Ok, drumroll for the POINTS* value (with my applesauce change in there)….

Serves: 12
POINTS*: 3

YAY! So, POINTSwise, this doesn’t make for a bad breakfast at all!! 🙂 Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies

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So, yesterday I realized that I wanted to bake with more pumpkin. The Fall is only here another month and a half, so I need to enjoy pumpkin while it feels right! I saw on Cara’s Cravings a picture of these beautiful swirly pumpkin cheesecake brownies and knew I just had to try it. Thanks for the recipe, Cara!

As far as for the diet, I didn’t really skinny it up that much (not that it really needed it as you will see in the POINTS* value), because it was election night and heck, I knew my family needed some fun food to enjoy the night with! I did make some changes on here, though.

Pumpkin Spice Cheescake Brownies
Adapted from: Cara’s Cravings

Ingredients:

Brownie Batter

  • 3/4 cup butter, melted (used 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup applesauce)
  • 1 cup sugar]
  • 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
    (added 1/4 oz. semisweet baking chocolate)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake Batter

  • 6 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves (I used 1/2 tsp nutmeg instead)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8×8″ square metal baking pan.
  2. Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture with a wooden spoon. In separate bowl, beat together cheesecake batter ingredients.
  3. Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan, and spoon cheesecake batter over. Dollop remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. Swirl the batters together by running a butter knife back and forth through the pan.
  4. Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely on wire rack and chill before cutting and serving.

img_7054
Don’t they just look great? Ok, I won’t keep you waiting. Here’s the POINTS* value.

Serves: 20 (I made them small because they are very flavorful brownies and you don’t need much to give the sweet tooth what it wants!)
POINTS*: 4

 

Pumpkin Pie

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With the time change, I was anxiously awaiting Desperate Housewives to come on at 8. However, it was 5:30 and dark! I realized I needed to make the time zoom a little faster, so I decided to make a pumpkin pie.

Not just any pumpkin pie, a Weight Watchers friendly pumpkin pie! I found this great recipe in Cooking Light, believe it or not. I’m being completely serious when I say I cannot tell the difference between normal pumpkin pie and this pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin Pie
Source: Cooking Light

Ingredients:

Filling:

  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated low-fat milk
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin

Crust:

  • 1/2 (15-ounce) package refrigerated pie dough (such as Pillsbury) (I used premade frozen crust)
  • Cooking spray

Topping: (I omitted this topping and subbed some Cool Whip Fat Free)

  • 1/4 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tablespoon amaretto (almond-flavored liqueur)
  • 2 teaspoons powdered sugar

Directions:

  1. Position oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 425°.
  2. To prepare filling, combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add pumpkin, and stir with a whisk until smooth.
  3. To prepare crust, roll dough into an 11-inch circle; fit into a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Fold edges under and flute.
  4. Pour pumpkin mixture into the crust. Place pie plate on a baking sheet. Place baking sheet on lowest oven rack. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° (do not remove pie from oven); bake an additional 50 minutes or until almost set. Cool completely on wire rack.
  5. To prepare topping, beat cream with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Add the amaretto and powdered sugar, and beat until blended. Serve with pie.

Serves 12.

POINTS*: 4.5/slice (with 1 tbsp. whipped topping included)

Seriously, try this recipe for the holiday season. You will not be disappointed! 🙂 This is now going to be a favorite I’m bringing to every holiday I’m asked to bring a dish for!

Crispy Yogurt Chicken

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I love baked chicken, but the problem I have is getting it crispy on both sides. Makes frying seem so much better, even though I’ve never fried chicken.

When I saw this recipe, I was very interested. I thought, wow, I bet the yogurt lends some moisture and the lemon might tenderize the meat a little while baking. After seeing many raving reviews on this recipe, I decided to go for it and try it! My local Albertson’s had boneless, skinless breasts at $1.68/lb too!

Crispy Yogurt Chicken
Source: The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

  • Chicken breasts (we used 3 chicken breasts which I split in half)
  • 2 cups plain, unflavored yogurt (we used fat free)
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • Parsley (I was cheap and used dried but PW recommended fresh)
  • The juice of one lemon
  • Salt
  • Butter
  • 2 cups (approx.) Panko Bread Crumbs

Directions:

  • Begin by pouring 2 cups of plain yogurt into a mixing bowl. Peel and mince a couple cloves of garlic and add them to the yogurt. Next, chop up a small amount of fresh parsley and add to the yogurt as well. To this, add the juice of one lemon. Mix together to combine.
  • Rinse your chicken and pat it dry. Then, give it a nice sprinkling of salt.
  • In another bowl, place the panko crumbs. Add a little salt and stir together.
  • Butter a baking dish. (I used parchment to save calories). Place the chicken, one piece at a time into the yogurt mixture, thoroughly coating it. Then, roll the chicken in the panko. Cover each piece with bread crumbs and place in the baking dish.
  • Finally, place a slice of butter over the large part of each chicken piece.


I ended up double buttering some pieces because they were so large (though I split the breasts).

  • Cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 – 1 1/4 hours, removing the foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking. When the chicken is nice and golden, remove from the oven and enjoy!

POINTS*: 6 (We didn’t use all the panko and yogurt so I estimated a little bit less used for a more accurate POINTS value)

This really was crispy chicken on both sides! Just look at that color!

However, I will say, this lacked some kick in it. Next time, I’ll add a little hot sauce and Tony’s to the yogurt mixture to make it a little more Louisianian. We will definitely make this again!

I ended up making onion soup potatoes, and rebaking the leftover green bean casserole and garlic bread to complete the meal!

Autumn Spiced Ham

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I participated in the What’s Cooking recipe exchange for October/November, and was super excited when I received this recipe!

I don’t know what nestie it’s from, so I’ll give you credit if you let me know!

Autumn Spiced Ham
Source: AllRecipes

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 tbs. butter
  • 1 (2 lb) ham steak (we used 1 lb. since it’s just the two of us)
  • 1 red apple, cored and thinly sliced
  • 1 green apple, cored and thinly sliced
  • 1/2 cup maple flavored pancake syrup (we used light syrup)
  • 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Directions:

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry the ham on both sides in the butter until browned.

I cut up the ham, as shown, to make it fit in the skillet!Lay the sliced apple over the ham. (A neat trick for slicing apples is put them in a bowl with orange juice to prevent browning until ready to use for your recipe. You won’t get orange flavor, I promise!) Pour the syrup over the apples. Reduce heat to medium, and simmer, stirring occasionally until the apples are cooked through.

Sprinkle with cinnamon, and serve immediately.

This recipe couldn’t have been easy enough! We were skeptical at first though, because we didn’t want an apple pie ham LOL! However, the taste was subtle and sweet. My fiance mentioned how yummy the apples were especially in the recipe.

 

Serves 4
POINTS*: 4

I ended up making garlic bread with a whole wheat loaf of french bread, brushed on butter, Penzey’s Northwoods seasonings, Brady Street Cheese Sprinkle, granulated garlic and a little bit of parsley! Really tasty!

I also made my fiance’s favorite dish, GBC! (Green Bean Casserole). Our favorite recipe is right here!

All in all, this was a great dinner for a Friday night!! 🙂

Pumpkin Mousse Pie

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I remember finding a recipe for this in my Weight Watchers magazine last year, and when I made it, it was SO yummy. Unfortunately, in my decluttering, I threw out the magazine, and thus, losing the recipe. I resorted to google to find the pie’s recipe, but there were like 4 versions. I took a chance on this one and made it. I will say, this isn’t the same recipe as the magazine. It was more spicy and much less pumpkin flavor than before. It was still good, but not the same. I will find that original recipe though…my family enjoys the trials!

 

Pumpkin Mousse Pie
Adapted from On Beyond Running

Ingredients:

  • 1 reduced fat graham cracker pie crust
  • 1 1/4 cup cold 2% milk
  • 1 package SF FF instant cheesecake pudding
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/2 tub sugar free cool whip, thawed
  • 1 tbs. pumpkin pie spice OR 1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 3/4 tsp. ground ginger and 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, beat milk, pudding mix and spices together with a whisk for 1 1/2 minutes. Whisk in pumpkin. Fold in cool whip. Spread in pie crust.
  2. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours for it to set. Keep stored in fridge.

Makes 8 servings
Points*: 4